[MRCA] MARS CW Ops

[Mike Morrow]

Robert wrote:

>I never understood why all of the calls were N0xyz, unless it was to differentiate
>them from calls issued to the various Naval District and Reserve Center stations.

I believe that is exactly the reason that all NMC MARS calls were "0" designated.  The military (non-MARS) stations at the various Naval Reserve Centers were assigned a number associated with the Naval District in which they were located.  In the old eighth naval district, such stations would have N8xyz calls.  I don't know what they did for naval districts whose number consisted of two digits, nor do I know what these USN 1x3 call signs transformed into after they were released for ham use.

>I was active in Navy MARS from almost the beginning through Vietnam and into the
>mid 70's as N0WSJ.

Oddly, when Navy MARS was created in 1963, issuance of individual member calls began with N0Rxy, not N0Axy, and proceeded to the end of the alphabet before starting with N0AAA.  The longest-term members had these N0Rxy, N0Sxy, N0Txy, etc. calls.  Joining Navy Marine Corps MARS in 1968 was the only real motivation for me to finally get my ham license.  Initially I was Novice class, so I had to check in to the SSB nets by using CW.  NMC MARS also ran its surplus equipment program a lot tighter than the other services who had suffered from some minor scandals.  Normally, any issued gear remained NMC MARS property and had to be returned upon membership termination unless cannabalization had been authorized.  But in the mid-1970s I received official notice that the USN had dropped accountability on the gear that I had been issued years earlier.  I don't know if there is a surplus gear issue program in the MARS programs today, but in the late 1960s Eight District NMC MARS issued stuff like RT-68/GRC, AN/PRC-6, -34, -36, BC-348, AN/ARR-15, AN/SRR-13, and an occasional TCS.  It was mostly older stuff (or oddball units like the PRC-34/36).  But some of the late AN/SRR-13A units were only about 10 years old.

>I would have been N0Ayz had NAV8 not lost my initial application.

I worked Eight Naval District MARS HQ station NAV8 in New Orleans many times when I was a member of Arkansas NMC MARS, especially when I was a district net NCS.

>I hated the change to NNN0...  It wasn't the major reason I went inactive
>but it didn't help any.

I know a number of members who left because of the NNN0xyz calls.  It just sounded silly.  Previous to that, NMC MARS calls were the best format call of any MARS system.  I was on active duty in the Navy and a bit out of the MARS loop when the change was made.  When I started receiving MARS mail addressed to NNN0LTD instead of N0LTD, I thought someone had a typewriter with some sort of problem.

Mike / KK5F